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English translation of Anarquismo Social e Organizao, by the Anarchist Federation of Rio de Janeiro (Federao Anarquista do Rio de Janeiro FARJ), Brazil, approved at the 1st FARJ Congress, held on 30th and 31st of August 2008.
The first Congress of the FARJ was held with the principal objective of deepening our reflections on the question of organisation and formalising them into a programme. This debate has been happening within our organisation since 2003. We have produced theoretical materials, established our thinking, learned from the successes and mistakes of our political practice it was becoming increasingly necessary to further the debate and to formalise it, spreading this knowledge both internally and externally. The document Social Anarchism and Organisation formalises our positions after all these reflections. More than a purely theoretical document, it reflects the conclusions realised after five years of practical application of anarchism in the social struggles of our people. The document is divided into 16 parts. It has already been published in Portuguese in a book co-published between Fasca and the FARJ.
Document approved at the 1st Congress, held on 30th and 31st of August 2008
The first Congress of the Anarchist Federation of Rio de Janeiro pays tribute to its comrades: Juan Perez Bouzas (1899-1958) Featured anarchist cobbler of Galician origin that, with unusual talent and determination, highlighted the necessity of the deepening of the struggle. In 2008 we remember the fiftieth anniversary of his death (05/09/1958). Ideal Peres (1925-1995) That, with sensibility and ample vision of the political horizon, guaranteed the maintenance of the social axis of anarchism and the connection of generations of militants. Plnio Augusto Colho (1956- ) Tireless in giving substance to our dreams, connecting them to the long thread that binds us to those who preceded us in the quiet or turbulent act of revolution. If you remained isolated, if each one of you were obliged to act on their own, you would be powerless without a doubt; but getting together and organising your forces no matter how weak they are at first only for joint action, guided by common ideas and attitudes, and by working together for a common goal, you will become invincible. Mikhail Bakunin
Summary:
0. Translators Introduction ............................................................................................. 4 1. The Context of the 2008 Congress and the Debate About Organisation ...................................................................................................... 6 2. Social Anarchism, Class Struggle and Centre-Periphery Relations .......................................................................................... 8 3. Anarchism in Brazil: Loss and Attempted Recovery of the Social Vector ..................................................................................................... 11 4. Society of Domination and Exploitation: Capitalism and State .................................................................................................... 16 5. Final Objectives: Social Revolution and Libertarian Socialism ............................................................................................ 22 6. Organisation and Social Force .................................................................................... 30 7. Social Movements and the Popular Organisation ....................................................... 33 8. The Specific Anarchist Organisation (SAO): The Anarchist Organisation ........................................................................................ 40 9. The SAO: Social Work and Insertion ........................................................................ 50 10. The SAO: Production and Reproduction of Theory ................................................ 55 11. The SAO: Anarchist Propaganda ............................................................................. 58 12. The SAO: Political Education, Relations and Resource Management .................... 60 13. The SAO: Relations of the Specific Anarchist Organisation with the Social Movements ....................................................................................... 61 14. The SAO: The Need for Strategy, Tactics and Programme .......................................................................................................... 65 15. Especifismo: Anarchist Organisation, Historical Perspectives and Influences ............................................................................................................ 69 16. Notes and Conclusion ............................................................................................... 80
Translators Introduction
This document, first published in Portuguese under the title Anarquismo Social e Organizao and adopted at the first Congress of the Federao Anarquista do Rio de Janeiro in August 2008, seeks to map out the FARJs theoretical conception of an organised, class struggle anarchism and, More than a purely theoretical document, [...] reflects the conclusions realised after five years of practical application of anarchism in the social struggles of our people. In it the FARJ traces its historical and organisational roots through the militant histories of Carioca * anarchists such as Ideal Peres, who struggled to keep the flame of anarchism alight during the dark days of dictatorship, to militants such as his father, Juan Perez Bouzas, Galician immigrant anarchist who participated decisively in the Battle of S in 1934, when the anarchists rejected the Integralistas ** under bursts of machine gun fire. In what is perhaps one of the most comprehensive elaborations on the Latin American concept of especifista anarchism now available in English, Social Anarchism and Organisation traces and outlines the theoretical and practical influences on the FARJs conception of anarchist organisation and its strategy for social transformation. It advocates a conception of anarchism that divides anarchist activity into two levels of activity the social (social or mass movement) and political (specific anarchist organisation) arguing that this dual-organisationalist approach to anarchist organisation is consistent with, and can by traced back to the ideas and practices of Bakunin himself in the Alliance of Socialist Democracy. The FARJ traces this common political lineage back to Bakunin through the experiences of the Federacin Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU) and those of the 1918 Aliana Anarquista and 1919 Partido Comunista (libertarian in content); through the experience of the Magonistas during the Mexican Revolution and the radical phases of the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM); through the experiences of the Federacin Anarquista Iberica (FAI) and Friends of Durruti group during the Spanish Revolution, and those of the authors of the Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists (Platform); to those of Errico
Malatesta in his conception of the anarchist party. Drawing from the experience of the loss of what it terms the social vector of anarchism (anarchisms social influence) at the end of the glorious period of anarchism, the FARJ advocates the need for a specific anarchist organisation tightly organised, comprising highly committed militants sharing high levels of theoretical and strategic unity that, through participating in and supporting popular movements and struggles against exploitation and domination, seeks to influence these movements with anarchist principles and in a revolutionary and libertarian direction. The final objective thereof being the recapturing of the social vector of anarchism as a necessary step towards the introduction of libertarian socialism by means of social revolution. In seeking to increase the social influence of anarchism the FARJ re-asserts the need for anarchism to come increasingly into contact with the exploited classes, thus identifying the class struggle as the most important and fertile terrain in which to attempt to spread anarchist principles and practices. For these to take root, however, it is essential for organised anarchists to carry out permanent and consistent propaganda, organisational and educational work within the movements and organisations of the exploited class and critically for the FARJ to always act in a manner consistent with what it terms a militant ethic. Social Anarchism and Organisation outlines the FARJs conception of the various tasks of the specific anarchist organisation, as well as its structure, processes for attracting new members and its orientation towards social movements all according to the logic of concentric circles. In formulating strategic answers to the questions, where are we?, where do we want to go? and how do we think we can leave where we are and arrive at where we want to be?, Social Anarchism and Organisation articulates the FARJs understanding of social classes under the society of exploitation and domination capitalism and state as well as its final objectives social revolution and libertarian socialism and how these may look. In so doing it explains the FARJs conception of the popular
Jonathan Payn
Johannesburg, March 2012
j Part 1
The Context of the 2008 Congress and the Debate about Organisation
To theorise effectively it is essential to act. Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (FAU)
The first Congress of the FARJ was held with the principal objective of deepening our reflections on the question of organisation and formalising them into a programme. Since 2003 the debate around organisation has been taking place within our organisation. We had produced theoretical materials, developed our thinking, learned from the successes and mistakes of our political practice and it was becoming increasingly necessary to further the debate and to formalise it, spreading this knowledge both internally and externally. The practical work of our two fronts occupations and community was absolutely central to the theoretical reflections that we made in this period. It even contributed to the creation of our third front in early 2008 the agro-ecological front, called Anarchism and Nature. One year ago we decided to have a debate around organisation, in necessary depth, with the aim of formalising the conclusions into a document that would be validated at the 2008 Congress. For this reason, still in 2007, we took some actions to contribute to the necessary theoretical maturity that would be essential to this path we wanted to take:
j Activation of the Political Education Secretary j Carrying-out of Internal Education Seminars j Development of Education Handbooks for Militants
These actions sought to give to each militant of our organisation the structure, space and necessary support so that this debate would be able to take place in the most desirable way possible. We made a great effort to read, write, debate, revisit materials already written, deepen discussions, make clarifications; in sum, to plan in the fullest we thought necessary for this debate. However, we did not only want to provide a forum for debate. We wanted to reach more conclusive positions, or deepen the political line of the organisation. As one of the features of our organisational model is theoretical and ideological unity, we wanted to use this time for the deepening of certain theoretical and ideological questions, and ultimately arrive at concrete positions, to be defined and disseminated by the whole organisation. In these five years we had always thought that in order to develop a political line we necessarily need to think of the mu-
tual influence that exists between theory and practice, since we consider them inseparable. When both interact reciprocally, and in a positive way, they enhance the results of all the work of the organisation. With good theory you improve practice; with good practice you improve theory. There is no way to conceive the anarchist organisation as with only theory and no practice, or even developing a theory and trying to completely adapt the practice to it. From the beginning we thought it would be fundamental not to construct an organisation that, distant from struggles, writes documents and then goes into practice with the objective of adapting it to the theory. Likewise, it never appeared possible to us to conceive anarchist organisation with only practice but no theory, or even assuming as theory everything that happens in practice. We always sought a balance that, on the one hand, did not have as an objective to theorise deeply in order to begin acting and, on the other, sought to ensure that the action was in line with the theory which, in our understanding, strengthens the result of militants efforts without unnecessary loss of energy. In this debate, which took place in the last two years and which is formalised in this document, we desired to develop a proper theory that was not simply a repetition of other theories developed in other places and at other times. Obviously, our whole theory is imbued, from beginning to end, with other theories and of other authors that lived and acted in other contexts. It would be impossible to conceive of a consistent anarchist theory without the contribution of the classical anarchists, for example. However, we made a point of having a long reflection on these the theories and thoughts of these authors and whether they make sense in our context today. We seek to create proper concepts, aiming to give original character to the theory that we wanted to create, and in this endeavour we think we have been very successful as we, in our view, construct and formalise a coherent theory, articulating classical and contemporary theories, as well as our own conceptions. Nevertheless, we do not believe that this is a definitive theory. Many aspects could be improved. Lastly... the most important thing is to make it clear that we think we are taking the first steps along this path we wish to follow. Finally, we desired to build this discussion and its formalisation in a collective manner. It is not enough for us that one
j Part 2
1. Dielo Trouda, Plataforma organizativa por una Unin General de Anarquistas. Translation to Spanish, revised and corrected by Frank Mintz. We use quotes from this translation made directly from the Russian, as the versions available to us in Portuguese and Spanish, both translated from the French, have several differences from the Russian original. Although the title of the document here is Spanish, we are referring to the same document translated into English as The Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists. 2. Errico Malatesta, Anarquismo y Anarquia. Excerpt from Pensiero e Volont, May 16, 1925. In: Vernon Richards
Anarchism is, for us, an ideology; this being a set of ideas, motivations, aspirations, values, a structure or system of concepts that has a direct connection with action that which we call political practice. Ideology requires the formulation of final objectives (long term, future perspectives), the interpretation of the reality in which we live and a more or less approximate prognosis about the transformation of this reality. From this analysis ideology is not a set of abstract values and ideas, dissociated from practice with a purely reflective character, but rather a system of concepts that exist in the way in which it is conceived together with practice and returns to it. Thus, ideology requires voluntary and conscious action with the objective of imprinting the desire for social transformation on society. We understand anarchism as an ideology that provides orientation for action to replace capitalism, the state and its institutions with libertarian socialism a system based on self-management and federalism without any scientific or prophetic pretensions. Like other ideologies, anarchism has a history and specific context. It does not arise from intellectuals or thinkers detached from practice, who pursued only abstract reflection. Anarchism has a history which developed within the great class struggles of the nineteenth century, when it was theorised by Proudhon and took shape in the midst of the International Workers Association (IWA), with the work of Bakunin, Guillaume, Reclus and others who advocated revolutionary socialism in opposition to reformist, legalist or statist socialism. This tendency of the IWA was later known as federalist or anti-authoritarian and found its continuity in the militancy of Kropotkin, Malatesta and others.
Thus it was within the IWA that anarchism took shape, in the direct struggle of the workers against capitalism, from the needs of the workers, from their aspirations to freedom and equality that lived, particularly, in the masses of workers in the most heroic times.1 The work of theorising anarchism was done by thinkers and workers who were directly involved in social struggles and who helped to formalise and disseminate the sentiment that was latent in what they called the mass movement. Thus over the years anarchism developed theoretically and practically. On the one hand it contributed in a unique way to episodes of social transformation, maintaining its ideological character such as, for example, in the Mexican Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Spanish Revolution or even in Brazilian episodes, like the General Strike of 1917 and the Insurrection of 1918. On the other hand in certain contexts anarchism assumed certain characteristics that retreated from the ideological character, transforming it into an abstract concept which became merely a form of critical observation of society. Over the years this model of anarchism assumed its own identity, finding references in history and at the same time losing its character of the struggle for social transformation. This was more strikingly evident in the second half of the twentieth century. Thought of from this perspective anarchism ceases to be a tool of the exploited in their struggle for emancipation and functions as a hobby, a curiosity, a theme for intellectual debate, an academic niche, an identity, a group of friends, etc. For us, this view seriously threatens the very meaning of anarchism. This disastrous influence on anarchism was noted and criticised by various anarchists from Malatesta, when he polemicised with the individualists that were against organisation,2 to
3. Luigi Fabbri, Bourgeois Influences on Anarchism 4. Murray Bookchin, Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: an unbridgeable chasm. 5. Ibid. 6. Frank Mintz, Anarquismo Social. So Paulo: Imaginrio/Fasca/ FARJ/CATL, 2006, p. 7. 7. FARJ. A Propriedade um Roubo. In: Protesta! 4. Rio de Janeiro/So Paulo: FARJ/CATL, 2007, p. 11. 8. As the author states, this classification is not intended to exhaust the relations and there are categories that overlap. The term area, also according to the author, refers more to a social than a geographical concept. Rudolf de Jong. Algumas Observaes sobre a Concepo Libertria de Mudana Social. In: Paulo Srgio Pinheiro. O Estado Autoritrio e Movimentos Populares. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1980, pp. 305353. The original classification is on pages 309 and 310 of the book. This text was reissued in 2008 by Fasca Publications, in coedition with the FARJ, with the title A Concepo Libertria da Transformao Social Revolucionria.
9. Ibid. p. 312 10. FARJ. Por um Novo Paradigma de Anlise do Panorama Internacional. In: Protesta! 4, p. 31. 11. Rudolf de Jong. Op. Cit. p. 324. 12. FARJ. Por um Novo Paradigma.... In: Protesta! 4, p. 31.
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j Part 3
Anarchism arose in Brazil in the nineteenth century as an order-destabilising element, with some influence over the revolts of the time as was the case with the Praieira Insurrection of 1848 over the artistic and cultural environment as well as with the experiences of the experimental agricultural colonies at the end of the century. The Cecilia Colony (18901894) being the most well-known of these experiences. There are reports of strikes, workers newspapers and the first attempts at organising centres of workers resistance in the same century. The emergence of what we call the social vector of anarchism began at the beginning of the 1890s, driven by a growth in the social insertion of anarchism in the unions, which culminated in the second decade of the twentieth century. We call the social vector of anarchism those popular movements that have a significant anarchist influence primarily with regard to their practical aspects irrespective of the sectors in which they occur. These mobilisations, fruits of the class struggle, are not anarchist as they are organised around questions of specific demands. For example, in a union, the workers struggle for better salaries; in a homeless movement, they struggle for housing; in an unemployed movement, they struggle for work etc. However, they are spaces for the social insertion of anarchism that, by means of its influence, confers on the most combative and autonomous practical movements with the use of direct action and direct democracy, aiming at social transformation. The mobilisations constituted in the social vector of anarchism are made within the social movements, considered by us as preferred spaces for social work and accumulation, and not as a mass to be directed. In Brazil, the social vector of anarchism began to develop in
the late nineteenth century with the growth of the urban network and the population in the cities, and then with industrial growth which, of course, also saw the growing exploitation of workers; victims of exhausting days, unhealthy working conditions and low wages in factories that also employed child labour. With the objective of defending the working class from these conditions of practically unbearable exploitation arose several labour organisations, riots, strikes and uprisings all of which were becoming increasingly common. The intensification of class struggle in Brazil was occasioned by the coachmens strike of 1900, a number of strikes in 1903 that peaked in the general strike initiated by the weavers and the uprisings that culminated in the 1904 Vacina Revolt. In 1903 the Federation of Class Associations (Federao das Associaes de Classe) was founded in the state of Rio de Janeiro. It followed the revolutionary syndicalist model of the French CGT and was later transferred to the capital and named the Brazilian Regional Workers Federation (Federao Operria Regional Brasileira - FORB) in 1906, some time after a visit by members of the Argentine Regional Workers Federation (Federacin Obrera Regional Argentina - FORA) and a solidarity campaign with Russian workers. By 1904 we can say that anarchism was able to present itself as an ideological tool of struggle and it was, without a doubt, revolutionary syndicalism that was responsible for the first social vector achieved by the anarchists in the large Brazilian centres.13 In 1905, in Sao Paulo, shoemakers, bakers, carpenters and hatters founded the Labour Federation of Sao Paulo (Federao Operria de So Paulo- FOSP) and, in 1906, came the Labour Federation of Rio de Janeiro (Federao Operria do Rio de Janeiro - FORJ), which led in 1917 to the General Union of Workers (Unio Geral dos Trabalhadores - UGT)
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13. Alexandre Samis. Pavilho Negro sobre Ptria Oliva. In: Histria do Movimento Operrio Revolucionrio. So Paulo: Imaginrio, 2004, p. 179. 14. Ibid. p. 136.
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15. Pierre Monate. Em Defesa do Sindicalismo. In: George Woodcock. Grandes Escritos Anarquistas. Porto Alegre: LP&M, 1998, p. 206. 16. Errico Malatesta. Sindicalismo: a Crtica de um Anarquista. In: George Woodcock. Op. Cit. p. 207. 17. Alexandre Samis. Anarquismo, bolchevismo e a crise do sindicalismo revolucionrio. (Still unpublished). 18. Jos Oiticica in A Ptria, 22 of June 1923. 19. Jos Oiticica, Fabio Luz and other anarchists radicalised in Rio de Janeiro took part in a specific group of anarchists called Os Emancipados. 20. Alexandre Samis. Anarquismo, bolchevismo e a crise do sindicalismo revolucionrio.
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j j j
The FARJ claims to continue the militancy of Ideal Peres and the work that originated from his history of struggle. Ideal Peres was the son of Juan Perez Bouzas (or Joo Peres), a Galician immigrant, anarchist and shoemaker who played an important role in Brazilian anarchism from the end of the 1910s. He was an active militant of the Alliance of Craftsmen in Footwear (Aliana dos Artfices em Calados) and of the Workers Federation of Sao Paulo (Federao Operria de So Paulo - FOSP), having been active in numerous strikes, pickets and demonstrations. In the 1930s he was active in the Anticlerical League (Liga Anticlerical) and, in 1934, participated decisively in the Battle of S when the anarchists rejected the Integralistas (fascists) under bursts of machine gun fire. The following year anarchists also participated in the formation of the National Liberator Alliance (Aliana Nacional Libertadora ANL), a co-ordination that supported the antifascist struggle, combating imperialism and landlordism. Ideal Peres was born in 1925 and began his militancy in that context of crisis, when the social vector of anarchism had already been lost. This happened in 1946 when he participated in the Libertarian Youth of Rio de Janeiro (Juven-
21. Ibid. 22. Idem. Pavilho Negro sobre Ptria Oliva. In: Histria do Movimento Operrio Revolucionrio, p. 181.
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23. Felipe Corra. Anarquismo Social no Rio de Janeiro: breve histria da FARJ e de suas origens. Lisboa: CEL/Cadernos dA Batalha, 2008, p. 25. 24. FARJ. Manifesto de Fundao.
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j Part 4
The wealth of some is made with the misery of others. Piotr Kropotkin For those who are in power, the enemy is the people. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Capitalism as a system has developed since the late Middle Ages and was established in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Western Europe. It constituted itself as an economic, political and social system, basing itself on the relations between two antagonistic classes. On one hand, that which is called the bourgeoisie and which we will treat in this text as capitalists, holders of private ownership of the means of production,25 who contract workers by means of wage-labour. On the other, that which is called the proletariat,26 and which we will treat in this text as workers who, possessing nothing more than their labour power, have to sell it in exchange for a wage. As we emphasised earlier, the wage-labourer classic object of analysis in the socialist theses of the nineteenth century for us, constitutes today only one of the categories of the exploited classes. The aim of the capitalists is the production of goods in order to obtain profits. The [capitalist] enterprise is not concerned with the needs of society; its sole purpose is to increase the profits of the business-owner. 27 By means of wage labour, the capitalists pay workers as little as possible and usurp from them all the surplus of their labour, which is called surplus value. This happens because, in order to increase their profits, the capitalists must have the lowest costs, or spend as little as possible. Selling their goods at the highest prices the market can pay, they remain with the difference between what they spend and what they earn the profit. To contain costs, and thus increase profits, the capitalists have various recourses; among them to increase productivity and decrease the costs of
production. There are several ways for this to be done, such as to impose a higher work rate on workers and reduce the wages paid to them. This relationship between capitalists and workers generates social inequality, one of the great evils of the society in which we live. This has already been established by Proudhon, when he investigated the subject in the nineteenth century: I affirmed then that all the causes of social inequality can be reduced to three: 1) the free appropriation of collective force, 2) inequality in trade; 3) the right to profit or fortune. And, as this triple way of usurping the goods of others is, essentially, the dominion of property, I denied the legitimacy of property and proclaimed its identity as theft 28 For us private property, as Proudhon noted, is theft since, from wage-labour it gives to the capitalist the surplus of the workers labour. This property, after stripping the worker by usury, kills them slowly by exhaustion. 29 Besides being a system that creates and maintains social inequality, capitalism is based on domination and consequent exploitation. Domination exists when a person or a group of people use the social force of others (the dominated), and consequently their time, in order to accomplish their objectives (of the dominator) which are not the objectives of the subjugated agent. 30 The capitalist system is characterised by the utilisation of the labour power of the worker for the enrichment of the capitalists, and is therefore a dominative and
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31. Mikhail Bakunin. O Sistema Capitalista. So Paulo: Fasca, 2007, p. 4. 32. Ibid. p. 14. 33. Piotr Kropotkin. A Expropriao. In: A Conquista do Po, p. 62. 34. Mikhail Bakunin. O Sistema Capitalista, pp. 67. 35. Idem. A Instruo Integral. So Paulo: Imaginrio, 2003, p. 69. 36. Subcomandante Marcos. Entrevista a Igncio Ramonet. In: Marcos: la dignidad rebelde. Chile: An Creemos en los Sueos SA, 2001, p. 26. 37. Ibid. p. 27.
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j j j
We consider the state the set of political powers of a nation, that takes shape by means of political, legislative, judicial, military and financial institutions etc.;41 and, in this way, the state is broader than the government. The state, since its inception in antiquity, passing through the Egypt of the pharaohs and the military-slave state of Rome, has always been an instrument for perpetuating inequality and a liberty-exterminating element, whatever the existing mode of production. This dominating institution has, in the course of history, know periods of greater or lesser strength, requiring attention to specific time and place. The state as we observe it today (the modern state) has its origins in the sixteenth century. In the Middle Ages, with the aim of destroying the civilisation of the cities, the modern barbarians ended up making into slaves all those who once organised themselves based on free initiative and free understanding. The whole of society was levelled based on submission to the landlord, declaring that the church and state were to be the only links between individuals, that only these institutions would have the right to defend commercial, industrial and artistic interests etc. The state was constituted by means of domination, to speak on behalf of society, since it was judged to be society itself. The state has been characterised by a double game of promising the rich to protect them from the poor, and promising the poor to protect them from the rich. Gradually the towns, victims of authority that were dying bit-by-bit were given to the state, which also developed its role as conqueror, moving on to wage wars against other states, seeking to expand itself and
38. Noam Chomsky. O Lucro ou as Pessoas. Rio de Janeiro: Bertrand Brasil, 2002, p. 136. 39. Ibid. p. 36. 40. Murray Bookchin. Um Manifesto Ecolgico: o poder de destruir, o poder de criar. In: Letra Livre 31. Rio de Janeiro: Achiam, 2001, p. 8. 41. Errico Malatesta. A Anarquia. So Paulo: Imaginrio, 2001, p. 15.
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42. Corporate associations of artisans, merchants, artists that existed in the Middle Ages. 43. Piotr Kropotkin. O Estado e seu Papel Histrico. So Paulo: Imaginrio, 2000, p. 64. 44. Errico Malatesta. Idealismo e Materialismo. In: Anarquistas, Socialistas e Comunistas. So Paulo: Cortez, 1989, p. 141. Livro em processo de reedio pela editora Scherzo. 45. Piotr Kropotkin. A Decomposio dos Estados. In: Palavras de um Revoltado. So Paulo: Imaginrio, 2005, p. 30.
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46. Mikhail Bakunin. Estatismo e Anarquia. So Paulo: Imaginrio, 2003, p. 169. 47. Ibidem. p. 47. 48. Ibidem. p. 212. 49. PierreJoseph Proudhon. Crtica s Constituies. In: Proudhon. So Paulo: tica, 1986, p. 87. 50. The term politics used here, and which will be used many more times throughout this text, is understood as: derived from the adjective originated from polis (Politik) which signifies all that which refers to the city, and consequently, what is urban, civil, public and even social and sociable. Norberto Bobbio et al. Dicionrio de Poltica. Braslia: Editora UNB, 1993, p. 954. Therefore, we do not understand politics as that performed by means of representative democracy. To do politics, in this case, means to effectively participate and decide on societys issues and, especially, on that which affects us. We work with the idea that there is politics outside of the electoral sphere. 51. Mikhail Bakunin. Estatismo e Anarquia, p. 74.
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52. Piotr Kropotkin. O Governo Representativo. In: Palavras de um Revoltado, p. 154. 53. Mikhail Bakunin. Estatismo e Anarquia, p. 73. 54. Ibid.
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j Part 5
55. We work with the classic conception of social revolution, developed by Bakunin, which considers it a transformation of the economic, political and social aspects of society. When we distinguish it from the political revolution we seek, in the same way, a classic differentiation that treats the political revolution as a transformation that only occurs on a political level, through the state. 56. Mikhail Bakunin. Statism and Anarchy, p. 52. 57. Idem. Protesta de la Alianza. In: Frank Mintz (org.). Bakunin: crtica y accin. Buenos Aires: Anarres, 2006, p. 33. 58. Idem. Cartas a un francs. In: Frank Mintz (org.). Bakunin: crtica y accin, p. 22.
Having drawn a brief diagnosis of the current society of domination and exploitation, we affirm two objectives that we understand as final: the social revolution 55 and libertarian socialism. The objective of the social revolution is to destroy the society of exploitation and domination. Libertarian socialism is that which gives constructive meaning to the social revolution. Together, the destruction as a concept of negation and the construction as a concept of proposition constitute the possible and effective social transformation we propose. There is no revolution without profound and passionate destruction, salvaging and fruitful destruction, because from it, and only by it, are new worlds created and born.56 However, destruction alone is not enough, since no one can wish to destroy without having at least a remote idea, real or false, of the order of things that should, in their opinion, replace that which currently exists.57 The social revolution is one of the possible outcomes of the class struggle and consists of the violent alteration of the established social order, and is considered by us the only way to put an end to domination and exploitation. It differs from the political revolutions of the
Jacobins and Leninists by supporting the alteration of the order not just with a political change, through the state, exchanging one directing minority for another. As we emphasised earlier the state, for us, is not a means for the emancipation of the exploited classes, nor should it be removed from the hands of the capitalists, through revolutionary means, by a supposed vanguard that claims to act on behalf of the proletariat. A political revolution such as the French Revolution or the Russian Revolution, which does not terminate the state in order to produce equality in its midst, becomes a bourgeois revolution and ends, unfailingly, in a new exploitation, wiser and more hypocritical, perhaps, but that does not lessen the oppression of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie.58 Unlike political revolution, social revolution is accomplished by the people of the cities and countryside who bring the class struggle and its correlation of forces with capitalism and the state to the limit, by means of popular organisation. Social revolution occurs when the social force developed in the heart of the popular organisation is greater than that of capitalism and the state and, put into practice, implants structures that support self-management and feder-
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59. Idem. La Comuna de Paris y la Nocin del Estado and Estatismo e Anarqua. In: Frank Mintz (org.). Bakunin: crtica y accin, pp. 2223. There are Portuguese translations of the two texts, done by Plnio A. Colho. That of Estatismo e Anarquia, in the publication already cited, and that of A Comuna de Paris e a Noo de Estado, in the publication: Mikhail Bakunin. O Princpio do Estado e Outros Ensaios. So Paulo: Hedra, 2008. 60. Errico Malatesta. A Violncia e a Revoluo. In: Anarquistas, Socialistas e Comunistas, p. 40. 61. Idem. Uma Vez Mais Sobre Anarquismo e Comunismo. In: Anarquistas Socialistas e Comunistas, p. 70.
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62. Mikhail Bakunin. Federalismo, Socialismo e Antiteologismo. So Paulo: Cortez, 1988, p. 38. 63. Ibidem. 64. The term federalism has been used by anarchists since Proudhon, who formalised his theories about the subject in Do Princpio Federativo of 1863, and other books. Federalism marked the libertarian socialists of the twentieth century, primarily those that acted in the IWA. Do not confuse this libertarian federalism with statist federalism. The term self management arose only a century later, in the 1960s to substitute others like selfgovernment, selfadministration, autonomy etc. Today, the two have different meanings, possessing a complementary meaning in economy and politics. 65. PierreJoseph Proudhon. De la cration de lordre dans lhumanit. In: A Nova Sociedade, p. 26.
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66. Piotr Kropotkin. As Nossas Riquezas. In: A Conquista do Po, p. 30. 67. James Guillaume. Ideas on Social Organization. In: Daniel Gurin. No Gods, No Masters. San Francisco: AK Press, 1998, p. 213. 68. Ibidem. p. 210. 69. Mikhail Bakunin. Federalismo, Socialismo e Antiteologismo, p. 37.
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70. Michael Albert. PARECON. London: Verso, 2003, pp. 104 106. For a discussion on complex balanced tasks see this book pp. 103111.
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71. James Guillaume. Op. Cit. p. 211. 72. Mikhail Bakunin. Federalismo, Socialismo e Antiteologismo, p. 18. 73. Murray Bookchin. Um Manifesto Ecolgico: o poder de destruir, o poder de criar. In: Letra Livre 31, p. 8. 74. Idem. Sociobiologia ou Ecologia Social?. Rio de Janeiro: Achiam, s/d, p. 71.
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75. PierreJoseph Proudhon. Do Princpio Federativo. So Paulo: Imaginrio, 2001, p. 90. 76. Ibidem. 77. Ibidem. p. 91. 78. Piotr Kropotkin. Anarchism. In: The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
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79. Mikhail Bakunin. A Instruo Integral, p. 78. 80. Idem. A Comuna de Paris e a Noo de Estado. In: O Princpio do Estado e Outros Ensaios, pp. 114115. 81. Idem. Moral Revolucionria. In: Conceito de Liberdade. Porto: Rs Editorial, s/d, p. 203.
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j Part 6
82. Errico Malatesta. A Organizao I. In: Escritos Revolucionrios. So Paulo, Imaginrio, 2000, p. 49. For Malatesta anarchist party is the same thing as the specific anarchist organisation. 83. Fabio Lpez Lpez. Poder e Domnio: uma viso anarquista, p. 75. 84. Luigi Fabbri. A Organizao Anarquista. In: AnarcoComunismo Italiano. So Paulo, Luta Libertria, s/d, p. 109.
Previously we dealt with that which we understand as the organisation of capitalism and the state, seeking to map out where we are; and the organisation of libertarian socialism, trying to specify where we want to reach. To complete the discussion on organisation it will be necessary to expand a bit on social movements and the popular organisation, as well as on the specific anarchist organisation; two different levels of action that will seek to answer [the question], how do we think we can leave where we are and arrive where we want to be, completing indispensable elements for our permanent strategy. As Malatesta nicely summarised, [...] organisation in general as the principle and condition of social life, today, and in the future society; organisation of the anarchist party and organisation of popular forces.82 For us, the social transformation we want to take place passes, necessarily, through the construction of the popular organisation, through the progressive increase in its social force until the moment at which it would be possible to overthrow capitalism and the state with social revolution and open the way to libertarian socialism. Furthermore, we argue that the popular organisation must be accompanied by a parallel development of the specific anarchist organisation, which should influence it, giving to it the desired character. Going forward we will have further discussions on each of these and on the interaction between one another. At the moment, what is essential is for us to assume that there is no way of thinking about this necessary transformation without organisation and the progressive growth of social force. We understand todays society as the result of a relationship of forces, or even a permanent conflict which takes the form of class struggle between capitalism, the state and other diverse political forces; and that the former are
strengthened, that is, manage to have a greater social force than the latter and, thus, establish power. In this sense capitalism and the state exert oppression over other political forces that constitute resistance to them. This resistance can occur in different ways, some constituting greater or smaller political forces, and others not constituting political forces. Resistance can be passive (when the agent has no action against the power that represses them) or active (when the power suffers retaliations on the part of the subjugated); isolated (it has an individual character) or articulated (collective force).83 Passive resistance does not constitute a political force and isolated resistance possesses little social force. Therefore, in order to attain our objectives we advocate active and articulated resistance which seeks in organisation the permanent increase of social force. For the construction of this resistance it is necessary to align with those that are in agreement with our proposal for social transformation. If we want to move forward, if we want to do something more than that which permanently isolates each one of us, we must know with which particular comrades we can be in agreement, and with which we disagree. This is especially necessary when we speak of action, of movement, of methods with which it is necessary to work with many hands in order to be able to obtain some results that go in our direction. 84 What we can today call order or status-quo is the organisation of capitalism and the state, which may or may not consider other political forces that provide a threat. To be disorganised, poorly organised or isolated means not to constitute an adequate resistance to capitalism and
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85. Errico Malatesta. A Organizao das Massas Operrias Contra o Governo e os Patres.In: Escritos Revolucionrios, p. 39. 86. FARJ. A Propriedade um Roubo. In: Protesta! 4, p. 7. 87. Errico Malatesta. La Organizacin. Exert from Pensiero e Volont, 16 of May, 1925. In: Vernon Richards. Op. Cit. pp. 8385. 88. Idem. A Organizao I. In: Escritos Revolucionrios, p. 51.
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89. PierreJoseph Proudhon. 1ere. Memoire sur la Propriet. In: A Nova Sociedade, p. 35. 90. Ibid. 91. Mikhail Bakunin. Tctica e Disciplina do Partido Revolucionrio. In: Conceito de Liberdade, pp. 198199. 92. FARJ. Reflexes Sobre o Comprometimento, a Responsabilidade e a Autodisciplina. 93. Ibid. 94. Errico Malatesta. A Organizao II. In: Escritos Revolucionrios, p. 59.
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j Part 7
We have mentioned the popular organisation and our expectations in relation to it a few times before. We have already defined that its objective is to overthrow capitalism and the state, and, by means of the social revolution, to build libertarian socialism, and by this we understand it as true protagonist in the process of social transformation. We also mentioned that the level at which social movements develop and in which we must seek to build and increase the social force of the popular organisation is what we call the social level. At this point we aim to discuss social movements, their desired characteristics and methods of action, as well as how they can contribute to the construction of the development of the popular organisation. In dealing with this social level we must think of the possibilities of the people, who must be the grand agent of the social change we propose. It is undeniable that there is a latent social force in the exploited classes, but we understand that it is only through organisation that this force can leave the camp of possibilities and become a real social force. The question arises, then, as follows: It is true that there is [in the people] a great elementary force, a force that without any doubt is superior to [that of ] the government, and to [that of] the ruling classes taken to-
gether; but without organisation an elementary force is not a real force. It is this indisputable advantage of organised force over the elementary force of the people on which is based the force of the state. Thus, the problem is not knowing whether they [the people] can rise up, but whether they are capable of building an organisation that gives them the means to arrive at a victorious end not by a fortuitous victory, but a prolonged and final triumph.95 Starting with organisation and its practical application in the field this force grows exponentially, offering a real chance to combat capitalism and the state. This because we have with us justice, rights, but our strength is still not enough.96 As we said earlier, it will be the permanent increase of the social force of the organisation of the exploited classes that will be able to provide the desired social transformation. For the construction of an organisation that gives us the means to reach the desired ends social revolution and libertarian socialism consolidating the victory, we advocate a model for the creation and development of what we call the popular organisation. Firstly, we justify organisation conforming to what we have previously defined; it being the co-ordination of forces or association with a
95. Mikhail Bakunin. Needs of the Organisation. In: Concept of Freedom, p.136. 96. Idem. The Dual Strike of Geneva. Sao Paulo: Imaninrio/ Fasca, 2007, p. 94.
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97. Ibid. p. 90. 98. Errico Malatesta. Los Anarquistas y los Movimientos Obreroa. Excerpt from Il Risveglio 115 out. 1927. In: Vernon Richards. Op. Cit. p. 111.
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99. Mikhail Bakunin. Unity and Programme of the Revolutionary Forces .... In: Conceito de Liberdade, p. 163. 100. Idem. La Poltica de la Internacional In: Frank Mintz (ed.). Bakunin: crtica y accin, P. 85. Despite being a fierce critic of clerical issues, Bakunin argued that even religious workers should join the labour movement. We think, like him, that religion should not divide social movements. On Bakunins critique of God and religion see: Mikhail Bakunin. God and the State. Sao Paulo: Imaginrio, 2000, and Mikhail Bakunin. Federalism, Socialism and Anti theologism.
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101. Universidade Popular. Capitalismo, Anticapitalism e Organizao Popular. Rio de Janeiro: UP / MTDRJ (in press). 102. Peter Kropotkin. Aos Jovens In: Palavras de um Revoltado, p. 67. 103. Emile Pouget. LAction Directe.
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104. FARJ. A Poltica no para os Polticos In: Libera 136. Rio de Janeiro, 2006.
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105. Errico Malatesta. Anarquismo e Reforma In: Anarquistas, Socialistas e Comunistas, P. 146. 106. Idem. Quanto Pior Estiver, Melhor Ser In: Anarquistas, Socialistas e Comunistas, P. 67. 107. Mikhail Bakunin. A Dupla Greve de Genebra, pp. 9293.
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108. Idem. Algumas Condies da Revoluo. In: Conceito de Liberdade, pp.128129. 109. Idem. Educao Militante. In: Conceito de Liberdade, p. 147.
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110. Errico Malatesta. Organisation II. In: Escritos Revolucionrios, p. 55. 11. Nestor Makhno. Our Organisation. In: Anarchy and Organisation. St. Paul, Libertarian Struggle, s / d, p. 31. 112. Luigi Fabbri. A Organizao Anarquista. In: AnarcoCommunismo Italiano, pp. 107, 110111.
In this text we have sometimes discussed the specific anarchist organisation and our expectations in relation to it. As we have earlier defined, its objective is to build the popular organisation and influence it, giving it the desired character, and to reach libertarian socialism by means of the social revolution. Further, we understand this as the political level of activity. The specific anarchist organisation is the grouping of anarchist individuals who, through their own will and free agreement, work together with well-defined objectives. For this it uses forms and means in order that these objectives are achieved, or that, at least, it proceeds towards them. Thus, we can consider the anarchist organisation as [...] the set of individuals who have a common objective and strive to achieve it; it is natural that they understand each other, join their forces, share the work and take all measures suitable for this task.110 Through the anarchist organisation anarchists articulate themselves at the political and ideological level, in order to put into practice revolutionary politics and to devise the means the way of working that should point to the final objectives: social revolution and libertarian socialism. This political practice, which seeks the final objectives, should be carried out: [] creating an organisation that can fulfil the tasks of anarchism, not only in times of preparing the social revolution, but also afterwards. Such an organisation must unite all the
revolutionary forces of anarchism and immediately concern itself with the preparation of the masses for the social revolution and with the struggle for the realisation of the anarchist society.111 This organisation is founded on fraternal agreements, both for its internal functioning as for its external action without having relations of domination, exploitation or alienation in its midst which constitute a libertarian organisation. The function of the specific anarchist organisation is to co-ordinate, converge and permanently increase the social force of anarchist militant activities, providing a tool for solid and consistent struggle, which is a fundamental means for the pursuit of the final objectives. Therefore: [...] it is necessary to unite and to organise: first to discuss, then to gather the means for the revolution, and finally, to form an organic whole that, armed with its means and strengthened by its union can, when the historical moment is sounded, sweep all the aberrations and all the tyrannies of the world away [...]. The organisation is a means to differentiate yourself, of detailing a programme of ideas and established methods, a type of uniting banner to embark in combat knowing those with whom you can count and having become aware of the force at ones disposal.112
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j Social Work and Insertion j Production and Reproduction of Theory j Anarchist Propaganda j Political Education j Conception and Implementation of j Social and Political Relations j Resource Management
These activities can be performed in a more or less public way, always taking into account the social context in which it [the organisation] operates. We say more or less public because we believe that one should do publicly what it is agreed that everyone should know, and secretly that which it is agreed should be hidden.113 In times of less repression the anarchist organisation operates publicly, performing the greatest propaganda possible and trying to attract the largest number of people. In times of increased repression, if, for example, a government forbids us to speak, to print, to meet, to associate, and we do not have the strength to rebel openly, we would try to speak, to print, to meet and to associate clandestinely.114 In this work, which varies according to the social context, the specific anarchist organisation must always defend the interests of the exploited Strategy
113. Errico Malatesta. La Propaganda Anarquista. Excerpted from Pensiero e Volunt, January 19, 1925. In: Vernon Richards. Op. Cit. p. 171. 114. Ibid. p. 172. 115. Mikhail Bakunin. Mobilizao do Proletariado. In: Conceito de Liberdade, p. 134. 116. FARJ. Carta de Princpios. 117. Ibid. The quotation marks in the next seven paragraphs refer to this document.
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political and social management, performed by the workers themselves. Emphasising the need for struggles to be selfmanaged we affirm that even if living with the current outdated system, [self-management] gives potential to the transformations that point towards an egalitarian society. By asserting internationalism we highlight the international character of struggles and the need for us to associate ourselves by class affinities and not those of nationality. The exploited of one country must see in the exploited of another a companion of the struggle, and not an enemy. Internationalism is opposed to nationalism and the exaltation of the state, as they represent a sense of superiority over other countries and peoples, and reinforce ethnocentrism and prejudice the first steps towards xenophobia. Everyone, regardless of their nationality, is equal and should be free. Direct action is posited as a principle founded on horizontalism and encourages the protagonism of workers, opposing representative democracy which, as we have already stated, alienates politically. Direct action puts the people in front of their own decisions and actions, linking workers and the oppressed to the centre of political action. In addition, we choose to base ourselves on class struggle, defining ourselves as a workers organisation of workers that defend the exploited, and fight for the extinction of class society and for the creation of a society in which slaves and masters no longer exist. Therefore, we recognise and give precedence to the class struggle. For us, there is a central need to combat the evils of capitalism head on, and for this it is essential to fight alongside the exploited, where the consequences of class society become more clear and evident. The principle of political practice and social insertion reinforces the idea that it is only with the exploited classes that anarchism is able to flourish. Therefore, the anarchist organisation should seek to relate to all forms of popular struggle, regardless of where they may be taking place. We affirm that the interaction of the anarchist organisation with any manifestation in the social, cultural, peasant, trade union, student, community, environmental camps etc., as long as inserted into the context of struggles for freedom, contemplates the concretisation of this principle. As the last principle in the Charter mutual aid encourages solidarity in struggle, encouraging the maintenance of fraternal relations with all who truly work for a just and egalitarian world. It encourages effective solidarity among the exploited. At the moment in which it performs social work the specific anarchist organisation seeks to influence the social movements in a constructive way, with proposals and, at the same time, keep away from them the negative influence of individuals and groups who instead of defending the interests of the people, encouraging them to be the protagonists of their own emancipation use them to achieve other objectives. We know that politicians, parties, unions and also other authoritarian organisations and individuals like the church, drug trafficking etc. constitute obstacles to the construction of the popular organisation since they penetrate social movements, in the vast majority of cases, seeking to take advantage of the number of people present there to: find support in elections, constitute the base for authoritarian power projects, get money, conquer faiths, open new markets and so on. Authoritarian organisa-
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43
SM A
SM B
SM C
Diagram 1
Flow of Militants
SU M FM
Diagram 2
SOA
Diagram 3 44
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defined. For example, this may be the time that a person has been in the organisation or their ability to elaborate the political or tactical-strategic lines. Thus, the newer militants or those with a lesser ability to elaborate the lines may be in a more external (distant) circle, with the more experienced militants with a greater ability for elaborating the lines in another more internal (closer) one. There is not a hierarchy between the circles, but the idea is that the more inside, or the closer the militant, the better are they able to formulate, understand, reproduce and apply the lines of the organisation. The more inside the militant, the greater is their level of commitment and activity. The more a militant offers the organisation, the more is demanded of them by it. It is the militants who decide on their level of commitment and they do or do not participate in the instances of deliberation based on this choice. Thus, the militants decide how much they want to commit and the more they commit, the more they will decide. The less they commit, the less they will decide. This does not mean that the position of the more committed is of more value than that of the less committed. It means that they participate in different decision-making bodies. For example, those more committed participate with voice and vote in the Congresses, which define the political and strategic lines of the organisation; the less committed do not participate in the Congresses, or only participate as observers, and participate in the monthly assemblies where the tactics and practical applications of the lines are defined. Thus, inside the specific anarchist organisation you may have one or more circles, which should always be defined by the level of commitment of the militants. In the case of more than one level this must be clear to everyone, and the criteria to change a level must be available to all militants. It is, therefore, the militant who chooses where they want to be. The next circle, more external and distant from the core of the anarchist organisation, is no longer part of the organisation but has a fundamental importance: the level of supporters. This body, or instance, seeks to group together all people who have ideological affinities with the anarchist organisation. Supporters are responsible for assisting the organisation in its practical work, such as the publishing of pamphlets, periodicals or books; the dissemination of propaganda material; helping in the work of producing theory or of contextual analysis; in the organisation of practical activities for social work: community activities, help in training work, logistical activities, help in organising work, etc. This instance of support is where people who have affinities with the anarchist organisation and its work have contact with other militants, are able to deepen their knowledge of the political line of the organisation, better get to know its activities and deepen their vision of anarchism, etc. Therefore, the category of support has an important role to help the anarchist organisation put into practice its activities, seeking to bring those interested closer to it. This approximation has as a future objective that some of these supporters will become militants of the organisation. The specific anarchist organisation draws in the greatest possible number of supporters and, through practical work, identifies those interested in joining the organisation and who have an appropriate profile for membership. The proposal for entry into the organisation
Diagram 2 SU being the level of supporters, M of militants and FM of full militants, the objective is the flow indicated by the red arrow to go from SU to M and from M to FM. Those who are interested can follow this flow, and those who are not can stay where they feel better. For example, if a person wants to give sporadic support, and no more than that, they may want to always stay at SU. The issue here is that all a persons will to work should be utilised by the organisation. This is not because a person has little time, or because they prefer to help at a time when it must be rejected, but because inside a specific anarchist organisation there must be room for all those who wish to contribute. Accomplishments are the criteria for selection that never fail. The aptitude and efficiency of the militants are, fundamentally, measures for the enthusiasm and the application with which they perform their tasks.120 The logic of concentric circles requires that each militant and the organisation itself have very well defined rights and duties for each level of commitment. This is because it is not just for someone to make decisions about something with which they will not comply. A supporter who frequents activities once a month and makes sporadic contributions, for example, cannot decide on rules or activities that must be met or carried out daily, as they would be deciding something much more for the other militants than for themselves. It is a very common practice in libertarian groups that people who make sporadic contributions decide on issues which end up being committed to or carried out by the more permanent members. It is very easy for a militant who appears from time to time to want to set the political line of the organisation, for example, since it is not they who will have to follow this line most of the time. These are disproportionate forms of decision-making in which one ends up deciding something which others enact. In the model of concentric circles we seek a system of rights and duties in which everyone makes decisions about that which they could and should be committed to afterwards. In this way it is normal for supporters to decide only on that in which they
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Diagram 3 SAO being the specific anarchist organisation, GT the grouping of tendency and SM the social movement, there are two flows. The first that of the influence of the SAO seeks to go through the GT and from there to the SM. Let us look at a few practical examples. The anarchist organisation that desires to act in a union may form a grouping of tendency with other activists from the union movement who defend some specific banners (revolutionary perspective, direct action, etc.) and by means of this tendency may influence the union movement, or the union in which it acts. Or the anarchist organisation may choose to work with the landless movement and, for this, brings people who defend similar positions (autonomy, direct democracy, etc.) in the social movement together in a grouping of tendency. By means
120. Juan Mechoso. Accin Directa Anarquista: una historia de FAU. Montevideo: Recortes, s / d, p. 199. The quotations marks of the Mechoso book refer to documents of the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (FAU). 121. Ibid. pp. 190, 192.
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122. Luigi Fabbri. A Organizao Anarquista. In: AnarcoCommunismo Italiano, p. 121. 123. Dielo Trouda. El Problem de la Organizacin y la Sntesis notional. 124. FARJ. Reflections on the commitment .... The unidentified quotes in this and the next paragraph refers to this article.
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130. Nestor Makhno. Our Organisation. In: Organisation and Anarchy, p. 32. 131. Errico Malatesta. Programa Anarquista. In: Escritos Revolucionrios, p. 23. 132. FARJ. Carta de Princpios. 133. Mikhail Bakunin. Some Conditions of the Revolution. In: Conceito de Liberdade, p. 127.
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134. Idem. Militant Education. In: Conceito de Liberdade, pp. 145146. 135. FAU. Declaracin de Principios. The quotes in this paragraph are from this same document. 136. Errico Malatesta. Programa Anarquista. In: Escritos Revolucionrios, p. 18.
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138. In Em Torno de Nosso Anarquismo, Malatesta stresses: To provoke, in as much as possible, the movement, participating in it with all our forces, by giving it a more egalitarian and libertarian character, that is; to support all progressive forces; to defend what is better when you cannot obtain the maximum, but always keeping very clear our anarchist character. [Emphasis added] See Escritos Revolucionrios, p. 80. 139. Errico Malatesta. The Organisation of the working masses.... In: Escritos Revolucionrios, p. 40. 140. Mikhail Bakunin. Liberty and Equality. In: G. P. Maximoff (ed.). Writings of Political Philosophy Vol. II. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1990, p. 9. 141. Ibid. 142. Idem. Tactics and Revolutionary Party Discipline. In: Conceito de Liberdade, p. 192.
We do not want to wait for the masses to become anarchists in order to make the revolution; even more than we are convinced that they will never become (anarchists) if initially we do not overthrow, with violence, the institutions that keep them in slavery. As we need the concurrence of the masses to build a sufficient material force, and to achieve our specific objective which is the radical change of the social organism through the direct action of the masses, we must get close to them, accept them as they are and, as part the masses, make them go as far as possible. This for we want, of course, to actually work to realise, in practice, our ideals and not to be content in preaching in the desert, for the simple satisfaction of our intellectual pride.137 We recall that we have advocated the position that it is ideology that should be within social movements, and not social movements that should be within ideology. The specific anarchist organisation interacts with social movements seeking to influence them to have the most libertarian and egalitarian forms possible.138 Although we treat anarchism and social movements as different levels of activity, we believe that there is a relationship of mutual influence between the two. This complementary and dialectic relationship causes anarchism to influence social movements, and social movements to influence anarchism. When we deal with social insertion we are talking about the influence of anarchism within social movements. In this respect, despite sustaining a separation between the political (the anarchist organisation) and social (social movements) levels, we do not believe that there should be hierarchy or domination of the political level over the social level. We also do not believe that the political level struggles for the social level or in front of it, but with it this being an ethical relationship. In its activity as an active minority the specific anarchist
organisation struggles with the exploited classes and not for or in front of them, seeing as though we do not want to emancipate the people, we want the people to emancipate themselves.139 We will discuss further on, in a little more detail, this relationship between the specific anarchist organisation and social movements. When dealing with social insertion as the influence that the specific anarchist organisation exerts on the social movements, we understand that it is important to elaborate a little more on what we mean by influence. To influence, for us, means to cause changes in a person or a group of people through persuasion, advice, examples, guidelines, insights and practices. First of all we believe that in society itself there are, at any given time, a multiplicity of influences between the different agents who influence and are influenced. We can even say that to renounce exerting influence over others means renouncing social action, or even the expression of ones own thoughts and feelings, which is [...] tending towards in-existence.140 Even from an anti-authoritarian perspective, this influence is inevitable and healthy. In nature as in human society, which in itself is nothing other than nature, every human being is subject to the supreme condition of intervening in the most positive way in the lives of others intervening in as powerful a manner as the specific nature of each individual permits. To reject this reciprocal influence means to conjure death in the full sense of the word. And when we ask for freedom for the masses we do not intend to have abolished the natural influence exerted on them by any individual or group of individuals.141 In practical work that influence must occur from the characteristics we seek to give social movements. Previously, when dealing with social movements and the popular organisation, we discussed these features in greater detail. So we are not concerned at this point with detailing them all again. We will only point out, once more and briefly, what the characteristics that we must sustain in the social movements are. They are: force, class struggle, combativeness, autonomy, direct action, direct democracy and revolutionary perspective. Social movements must be strong, without falling inside an ideology, since imposing the cause of anarchism on social movements would not be anything but a complete absence of thought, of objective and of common conduct, and [...] would lead, necessarily, to a common impotence.142 They should be class struggle in orientation and have a class line, which means
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143. FAU. Declaracin de Principios. 144. Ibid. 145. Errico Malatesta. Los Movimientos Obrero y los Anarchists. Excerpt from Umanit Nova, April 6, 1922. In: Vernon Richards. Op. p. 114. 146. Mikhail Bakunin. Militant Education. In: Conceito de Liberdade, p. 146. 147. Ibid. Workers, Peasants, and Bourgeois Intellectuals. In: Conceito de Liberdade, p. 110.
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148. Errico Malatesta. Programa Anarquista. In: Escritos Revolucionrios, p. 18. 149. Ibid. p. 17. 150. FAU. Declaracin de Principios. 151. FARJ. Carta de Princpios.
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154. Ibid. 155. Ibid. 156. Dielo Trouda. Organisational Platform for a General Union of Anarchists
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Anarchist Propaganda
157. Errico Malatesta. Programa Anarquista. In: Escritos Revolucionrios, p. 7. 158. Luigi Fabbri. A Organizao Anarquista. In: AnarcoComunismo Italiano, p. 97. 159. Errico Malatesta. La Propaganda Anarquista. Excerpt from LAgitazione, 22 de setembro de 1901. In: Vernon Richards. Op. Cit. p. 172.
The specific anarchist organisation is also dedicated to anarchist propaganda. Propaganda is not and cannot be but the constant, tireless repetition of the principles that must be our guide in the conduct that we must follow in the various circumstances of life.157 Thus, we understand propaganda as the dissemination of the ideas of anarchism, and, therefore, as a fundamental activity of the anarchist organisation. Its objective is to make anarchism known and to attract people to our cause. Propaganda is one of the activities of the anarchist organisation and not the only activity. It should be performed constantly and in an organised manner. The organisations propaganda must be done uninterruptedly, just as the propaganda of all the other postulates of the anarchist ideal.158 To have strength propaganda needs to be performed constantly. Propaganda that is done once in a while is not enough to make anarchism known and, much less, to draw people in. Therefore, the first assertion that we make is that propaganda must be continuous. Besides this, propaganda should not be done in an isolated way, since, like all uncoordinated activity, it lacks the desired strength. As we have seen organisation understood as the co-ordination of forces for the realisation of an objective multiplies the results of individual work, and this also applies to propaganda. When we are organised, the result of our propaganda work be it theoretical or practical propaganda is multiplied, and achieves results far superior to the simple sum of individual forces. Therefore, the second assertion that we make is that propaganda must be done in an organised way, because this multiplies its results. Casual, isolated propaganda which is often done to calm ones own conscience or simply to alleviate passion through discussion does little or nothing. Under the conditions of inconsistency and misery in which the masses are to be found, with so many forces that oppose them, such propaganda is forgotten before its efforts can accumulate and have fertile results. The
terrain is very ungrateful for seeds sown at random to germinate and take root.159 We argue that the specific anarchist organisation utilises any means that are at its disposal for the realisation of this constant and organised propaganda. Firstly, with respect to the theoretical, educational and/or cultural sphere with the realisation of courses, talks, debates, conferences, study groups, websites, e-mail, theatre, bulletins, newspapers, magazines, books, videos, music, libraries, public events, radio programmes, television programmes, libertarian schools etc. We truly value all this propaganda and think that it is fundamental in order to attract people and ensure that they know the critiques and also the constructive proposals of anarchism. Thus, it is possible to develop antiauthoritarian values in people, to stimulate their consciousness, to make them see the exploitation and domination in a more critical way such that they look at alternatives of struggle and organisation. These people can be approached, seeking to deepen their knowledge, to involve them in discussions and also to organise them for action. This type of propaganda, when performed on a large scale is fundamental since it functions as a social lubricant that slowly changes the culture in which we live and makes the introduction of anarchist ideas and practices into society easier. This massive propaganda work slowly turns the peoples consciousness and causes the ideology of capitalism, which is already transmitted in the form of culture, to be more questioned and even less reproduced. As we understand consciousness as a capacity that people have to know values and ethical principles and to apply them, we believe this propaganda activity to be highly relevant for the permanent gain of consciousness. In the first instance is to remove prejudices and capitalist culture, then, to make people come to see authoritarianism critically. Finally, to take some of these people to the struggle against authoritarianism. We understand that
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160. Luigi Fabbri. A Organizao Anarquista. In: AnarcoComunismo Italiano, pp. 115116. 161. Mikhail Bakunin. Algumas Condies da Revoluo. In: Conceito de Liberdade, p. 130. 162. In the Regulations of the Geneva Section of the Alliance of Socialist Democracy, written by Bakunin, he recommends: You cannot become a member without having accepted, sincerely and completely, all of its principles. The older members are obliged and the recent members have to promise to do around them, when possible, the most active propaganda, both by their example, as well as by words [our emphasis]. See Conception of Freedom, p. 201. 163. Errico Malatesta. La Propaganda Anarquista. Excerpt from LAdunata dei Refrattari, 26 de dezembro de 1931. In: Vernon Richards. Op. Cit. p. 170.
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The Specific Anarchist Organisation (SAO):
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The Specific Anarchist Organisation (SAO):
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164. Juan Mechoso. Op. Cit. p. 194. 165. Ibid. 166. Ibid. p. 195. 167. Ibid.
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168. FAU. Declaracin de Principios. 169. Dielo Trouda. Organisational Platform for a General Union of Anarchists. 170. Errico Malatesta. La Organizacin. Excerpt from LAgitazione, 18 de junho de 1897. In: Vernon Richards. Op. Cit. p. 89. 171. FARJ. Carta de Princpios.
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172. Universidade Popular. Op. Cit. 173. Errico Malatesta. Enfim! O que a Ditadura do Proletariado. In: Anarquistas, Socialistas e Comunistas, p. 87.
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175. Juan Mechoso. Op. Cit. p. 196. 176. Ibid. 177. Mikhail Bakunin. Programa Revolucionrio e Programa Liberal. In: Conceito de Liberdade, p. 188. 178. Errico Malatesta. Los Fines y los Medios. Excerpt from LEn Dehors, 17 August 1892. In: Vernon Richards. Op. Cit. p. 69. 179. Mikhail Bakunin. Programa Revolucionrio e Programa Liberal. In: Conceito de Liberdade, p. 188. 180. FAU. Resoluciones Sobre el Tema Estrategia. 181. George Fontenis. Manifesto of Libertarian Communism.
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182. Juan Mechoso. Op. Cit. p. 197. 183. FAU. Resoluciones Sobre el Tema Estrategia. 184. Errico Malatesta. A Organizao II. In: Escritos Revolucionrios, pp. 5960.
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disputes within the organisation. In strategic terms this unity will allow for everyone in the organisation to row the boat in the same direction and can multiply the results of militant forces. Thus, everyone has a similar reading of where we are, were we want to go and how to progress from one point to another.
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j Part 15
Since the term especifismo arrived in Brazil in the mid-1990s there has been a series of polemics or even confusions around it. There were, and unfortunately still are people who say that especifismo is not anarchism; they accuse especifista organisations of being political parties, among other absurdities. When we identify the FARJ as a specific anarchist organisation we are seeking, more than anything else, to locate within the discussion about anarchist organisation what the positions that we espouse are. The term especifismo was created by the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (Federacin Anarquista Uruguaya - FAU) and, by it, we refer to a conception of anarchist organisation that has two fundamental axes: organisation and social work/insertion. These two axes are based on the classical concepts of differentiated actuation of anarchism in the social and political levels (Bakuninist concept) and specific anarchist organisation (Malatestan concept). Therefore, the term especifismo, besides having been recently conceived, refers to anarchist organisational practices that have existed since the nineteenth century. In addition to these two axes, there is a series of other organisational questions that are defined within especifismo and that we seek to develop next. Therefore, the two main classical references of especifismo are Bakunin and Malatesta. This does not mean that we disregard other important theorists such as Proudhon and Kropotkin we have used many of their theoretical references in this text but we believe that, for the discussion on anarchist organisation, Bakunin and Malatesta have proposals more suitable for our work. In the following paragraphs we intend to briefly resume some discussions that weve had throughout this text, and especially this last chapter, and locate them and compare them with other positions that exist within anarchism. We believe that more than affirming the positions we advocate what weve done so far it is fitting to realise a few fraternal critiques of other conceptions of organisation (or disorganisation) present within anarchism and, based on a few selected points, to compare our conceptions with others.
Perhaps the best contrast with the especifista model of organisation would be what we call the synthesis model, or synthesism. This model was theoretically formalised in two homonymous documents called The Anarchist Synthesis, one by Sebastin Faure and the other by Volin. Historically and globally it was the Platform of Dielo Trouda that established this contrast. We intend to resume part of this debate about anarchist organisation although, in our view, especifismo is broader that Platformism even though it [the latter] possesses a significant influence. Synthesis advocates a model of anarchist organisation in which are all the anarchists (anarcho-communists, anarchosyndicalists, anarcho-individualists etc.) and, therefore, it presents many of the characteristics that we criticise below. We know that some of these characteristics are not necessarily linked to the synthesist model of organisation. However, it is undeniable that many of them are reproduced in organisations of this type, primarily through the influence of individualism, but not only this. We recognise that within synthesist organisations there are also serious militants committed to social anarchism and, therefore, we do not want the criticisms to seem generalised. Although we never question whether these organisations are anarchist (for us, they all are), they do not, in most cases, converge with our way of conceiving anarchist organisation. First of all, when dealing in this text with the specific anarchist organisation from this particular perspective, we are not speaking about any anarchist organisation. There are diverse anarchist organisations that are not especifista. Therefore, especifismo implies much more than to advocate anarchist organisation. The first difference is in the way of understanding anarchism itself. As we noted at the beginning of this text we understand anarchism as an ideology, that is, a set of ideas, motivations, aspirations, values, a structure or system of concepts that have a direct connection with action that which we call political practice. In this case we seek to differentiate this understanding of anarchism from another, purely abstract and theoretical,
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which only encourages free thinking, without necessarily conceiving a model of social transformation. Anarchism, thought of only from this model of critical observation of life, offers an aesthetic freedom and endless possibilities. However, if so conceived, it does not offer real possibilities of social transformation, since it is not put into practice, into action. It does not have the political practice that seeks the final objectives. Especifismo advocates an anarchism that, as an ideology, seeks to conceive a model of performance that transforms the society of today into libertarian socialism by means of the social revolution. This process necessarily involves the organisation of the exploited classes into a popular organisation and demands the use of violence, understood primarily as a response to the violence of the current system. Other anarchist currents are against violence and believe that social transformation can take place in other ways. Another difference is around the very question of organisation. For us, organisation is an absolutely central question when dealing with anarchism. Without it, we believe it to be impossible to conceive any serious political project which has the objective of arriving at the social revolution and libertarian socialism. There are anarchist currents that support anti-organisational or even spontaneist positions, and believe that any form of organisation is authoritarian or averse to anarchism. For these currents, the formation of a desk to co-ordinate an assembly is authoritarian. Anyway, for these anarchists the struggle must take place spontaneously. The gains, if they come, must come spontaneously. The connection between struggles must be spontaneous and even capitalism and the state, if overthrown, would be done so by a spontaneous mobilisation. Perhaps, even after an eventual social revolution, things will evolve on their own, falling into place effortlessly. These anarchists believe that prior organisation is not necessary, others think that it is not even desirable. Some anarchist individuals that defend these points of view and who are willing to do social work cannot deal with the authoritarian forces and, without the proper organisation, end up being labourers and sleeves for authoritarian projects or they leave frustrated because they cannot obtain spaces in social movements. We noted earlier that we conceive of the specific anarchist organisation as an organisation of active minority. Thus, it is an organisation of anarchists that group themselves together at the political and ideological level and that carry out their main activity at the social level, which is broader, aiming to be the ferment of struggle. In the especifista model there is necessarily this differentiation between the political and social levels of activity. Differently, there are anarchists who conceive of the anarchist organisation as a broad grouping that federates all those who call themselves anarchists, serving as a convergence space for the realisation of actions with complete autonomy. In anarchism, broadly speaking, this division between the social and political levels is also not accepted by all the currents, which understand the anarchist organisation in a diffuse manner, it being able to be a social movement, an organisation, an affinity group, a study group, a community, a co-operative etc. Even the concept of anarcho-syndicalism, at various times,
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* In Brazilian political terminology assistencialist (assistencialista) is a term to denote someone that does things like, for example, NGOs when they distribute food to the poor. It is linked with charity.
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185. Mikhail Bakunin. Programa Revolucionrio e Programa Liberal. In: Conceito de Liberdade, p. 189. 186. Luigi Fabbri. A Organizao Anarquista. In: AnarcoComunismo Italiano, pp. 104105.
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187. Mikhail Bakunin. Tctica e Disciplina do Partido Revolucionrio. In: Conceito de Liberdade, pp. 197198.
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188. Idem. Programa Revolucionrio e Programa Liberal. In: Conceito de Liberdade, pp. 188189. 189. Dielo Trouda. El Problema de la Organizacin y la Nocin de Sntesis. 190. Mikhail Bakunin. Imprio Knuto Germnico. Cited in Daniel Gurin (org.). Textos Anarquistas (trechos de Ni Dieu, Ni Matre). Porto Alegre: LP&M, 2002, pp. 4748. 191. Errico Malatesta. A Organizao II. In: Escritos Revolucionrios, p. 62.
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We now turn, briefly, to especifismos historical perspective and influences. As we have seen the term especifismo was developed by the FAU and only arrived in Brazil in the late twentieth century. Nevertheless, this term, more than creating a new conception of anarchist organisation sought to group a series of already existing anarchist organisational conceptions, which took shape starting from the nineteenth century. The especifismo of the FAU asserts the influence of Bakunin and Malatesta, of the class struggle of anarcho-syndicalism, of expropriator anarchism; all this within a Latin American context. We will attempt to explain in the following paragraphs, from our own conception, how we understand the historic experience of especifismo: the main past experiences, in terms of anarchist organisation, which influence us today. Especifismos first historic reference is Bakunin, from the organisational conceptions that constituted the activity of the libertarians within the International Workers Association (IWA), and which gave body to anarchism. The IWA was articulated from the visits of the representatives of the French workers associations to England, where they contacted English and exiled German union leaders amongst the latter, Karl Marx. Politically, the composition of the IWA appeared heterogeneous: Marxists, Blanquists, republicans, trade unionists and Proudhonian federalists. The Marxists ended up by forming a majority in decisionmaking in the Central Committee, aligning themselves with members of other currents and taking control of that body. This situation persisted even after the substitution of the Central Committee by the General Council in the 1866 Geneva Congress. There one saw that the anarchists, be they inspired by Proudhon or followers of Bakunin, did not have any force in the central executive of the association. They were more influential through the grassroots, showing this in the congresses. Two tendencies developed within the IWA: one centralist and one federalist. Among the au-
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193. Ibid. pp. 151152. 194. Do not confuse the term party used here with the parties that compete in elections or that seek to take the state through revolution. As we have already stressed, anarchist party for Malatesta is the same thing as specific anarchist organisation. 195. Errico Malatesta. A Organizao II. In: Escritos Revolucionrios, p. 56. 196. Idem. Sindicalismo: a crtica de um anarquista. In: George Woodcock. Op. Cit. pp. 208; 212.
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strong anarchist organisation, founded the Peasants Union; which decided to fight for the social revolution independent of the government, seeking self-management of the means of production. In Petrograd it claimed workers control in the factories and Kronstadt sailors, carrying red and black flags, marched on the city with the goal of instituting a soviet and self-managed republic. In October anarchist and Bolshevik soldiers acting in concert were able to take the Winter Palace, then came a divide between the authoritarian and libertarian revolutionary elements. The former were for seizing the state apparatus and moving towards the dictatorship of the (Bolshevik) Party, directed by an all-powerful central committee; the latter for libertarian and self-managed communism in the form of councils of soviets of workers, peasants and the people in arms. Progressively, the Bolsheviks began to deny, suppress, impede and, finally, prohibit the spread of libertarian ideas and practices. As early as 1918 the Bolsheviks positioned themselves against the workers control of factories, encouraging the blind discipline of workers to the party, and were gradually consolidating the prohibition of opposition to the party. They militarised labour, expelled elected leaders from the soviets, forced these [the soviets] to submit to the central power of the party and prohibited strikes. In the struggle against the White Army the insurrectionary army of Makhno in the Ukraine allied with the Bolsheviks more than once. On defeating the White threat the Makhnovist army was attacked and persecuted by the Red Army, forcing the survivors to take refuge in other countries. It was the end of the process of self-managed socialisation in the Ukraine, repressively reversed by the Bolsheviks in favour of statist and totalitarian forms of organisation and social control under a new ruling class. The Kronstadt sailors who demanded that the delegates to the soviets go back to being chosen by election; freedom for anarchists and other leftist groups; that unions and peasant organisations return to being united; the release of political prisoners; the abolition of political officers; and the same food for all were killed by the Bolsheviks. Despite this proletarian and libertarian revolution having been usurped and dominated by the Bolsheviks, as from their seizure of the state apparatus, the anarchists sinned by omission on the matter of organisation. This reflection was formalised years later by Russian immigrants who were in Europe, in a document called the Organisational Platform of Libertarian Communists. Makhno, Arshinov and others formalised in this document their considerations on anarchist organisation, informed by the experiences of the Russian Revolution. This document brought forward important insights about the importance of the involvement of anarchists in the class struggle, the need for a violent social revolution that overthrows capitalism and the state and that establishes libertarian communism. There is also an important contribution on the question of the transition from capitalism to libertarian communism and on the defence of the revolution. The Platform advocates an anarchist organisation, at the political level, that acts in the midst of social movements, a social level, and emphasises the role of active minority of the anarchist organisation. Moreover, it makes important contributions on
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the model of organisation of the political level of the anarchists. For these reasons, it is an important document and has considerable influence in especifismo. However, we do not believe that especifismo is the same thing as Platformism. As we have been trying to show throughout this text, for us, especifismo is much broader than Platformism and has its theoretical basis in the organisational conceptions of Bakunin and Malatesta. For us, the Platform both draws from these authors and brings new contributions and should therefore be considered as a contribution to especifismo, but not the most important contribution. Another factor to be taken into account is that the Platform was written about an experience of the military action of anarchists in the midst of a revolutionary process, and should not be removed from this context. We understand that this form of organisation, as expressed in the Platform, should not be applied in all its details in non-revolutionary situations. It is more a contribution to the discussion of anarchist military action than a document to discuss anarchist organisation in all different contexts. As with the Russian Revolution, we also consider the Spanish Revolution of 1936 a reference. During those years a social revolution was effectively carried out. A revolution under fire that wanted to reach all sectors, from unjust economic structures to the daily life of the population; from the decrepit notions of hierarchy to the historic inequalities between men and women. And all this was the work of the anarchists. The influences of anarchism were brought to Spain by Giuseppe Fanelli, alliancist and militant very close to Bakunin. Founded in 1910, the National Confederation of Labour (Confederacin Nacional del Trabajo - CNT) was the greatest expression of anarcho-syndicalism in Spain and lived, until the 1920s, between moments of ebb and flow with constant repression, of which it was victim. Founded in 1927, the Iberian Anarchist Federation (Federacin Anarquista Ibrica - FAI) was a clandestine organisation dedicated to revolutionary activity which, among its objectives, sought to oppose the reformist currents in the CNT. The action achieved success, and the revolutionary anarchists obtained hegemony in the CNT. In 1936 the Popular Front (bringing together the parties of the left) was able to win at the polls. The anarchists of the CNT ended up tactically supporting the Front because this would mean the release of imprisoned comrades. With the endorsement of the CNT the victory of the Popular Front was made possible. However, the fascists did not accept the defeat. On July 18,1936, the Phalangist coup movement breaks out, among which Francisco Franco stood out. Thus began the revolutionary explosion that would throw the country into three years of civil war. In the first phase (July 1936 to early 1937) the anarchists are among the most prominent groups. The action of militants in areas such as Catalonia was exemplary. The republican structures turned into popular organisations in an intense and successful process of collectivisation. Factories were occupied and immediate social measures put into practice, such as: equal pay between men and women, free medical service, permanent salary in case of sickness, reduced working hours and increased pay. Metallurgical, timber industry, transport, food, health, media and entertainment services and rural properties were collectivised. In order to combat the fascist forces they
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The 1st Congress completely fulfilled its objectives, taking place in an atmosphere of great solidarity between militants. It provided the due space for reflections, comments, debates and conclusions. The evaluations of all the militants were very positive. The importance of having a generation of older and more experienced militants in the organisation, who were (and are) essential so that the militant knowledge of previous generations would not be lost and for the training and mentoring of the new generation, was evidenced. The Congress paid homage to the old guard, and also welcomed the new guard, as it has helped to put into practice that which their elders have always advocated. The militants of the organisation who have been in the struggle since the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s stressed the importance of this moment, which points to the continuity of a militancy that, for us, begins with Juan Perez Bouzas, passes through the entire history of the struggle of Ideal Peres, through the Crculo de Estudos Libertrios (CEL), which later became the Crculo de Estudos Libertrios Ideal Peres (CELIP) and, in 2003, constituted the FARJ. We believe ourselves to be putting into practice the aspirations of the various personalities of this history, to which we believe we are giving due continuity. At this point the objective is to continue on the quest for the social vector of anarchism. To put anarchism in contact with social movements, seeking the creation of the popular organisation. We are trying to do this through our three fronts. The urban social movements front (our old occupations front) has been conducting ongoing work with urban occupations in Rio de Janeiro since 2003, giving continuity to the experiences that we had with the homeless movement in the decade of 1990. This front also encompasses, at present, the reconstruction of the Unemployed Workers Movement (Movimento de Trabalhadores Desempregados - MTD), which struggles for work all over the country, and has existed in Rio de Janeiro since 2001. The MTD is now recuperating its strength, regrouping and uniting people from poor communities for the struggle. Besides this, this front has relations with the Landless Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra - MST), to which it offers political education courses in both Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The front is also close to and conducts activities with other entities and social movements such as the Popular
Assembly - RJ (Assemblia Popular - RJ) and the Internationalist Front of the Homeless (Frente Internacionalista dos Tem-Teto - FIST). The community front is responsible for the management of the Social-Culture Centre of Rio de Janeiro (Centro Cultura Social do Rio de Janeiro - CCS-RJ), an open social space that we maintain in the north of the city and that hosts a number of community activities in waste recycling, tutoring and entrance exam courses for the poor community of Morro dos Macacos, theatre workshops, cultural events, celebrations and meetings of various kind. This front is also responsible for the management of the Fbio Luz Social Library (Biblioteca Social Fbio Luz - BSFL), which has existed since 2001 and around which runs the Marques da Costa Centre for Research (Ncleo de Pesquisa Marques da Costa - NPMC) which, founded in 2004, aims to produce theory for the organisation, in addition to researching the history of anarchism in Rio de Janeiro. Besides this, the community front administers CELIP, the FARJs public space that aims to hold lectures and debates in order to draw in those newly interested in anarchism. The agro-ecological front, called Anarchism and Nature, operates in rural social movements and groupings that work with agriculture and social ecology. It has contacts and works with the MST, La Via Campesina and spaces like the Floreal Cooperative and the Germinal Centre for Food and Health (Ncleo de Alimentao e Sade Germinal). It conducts educational workshops in occupations, at schools and in poor communities. All this with the aim of recovering agriculture, agro-ecology, social ecology, eco-literacy and the solidarity economy. It seeks to involve workers, social movements activists and students in its activities. To meet an important demand we headed a transversal project in which all fronts were inserted, called the Popular University (UP-RJ). This proposal was deployed, in fact, in an anti-capitalist popular education initiative focused on the transformation of society and having, as a tactic, political education within social movements. Other transversal works have also been realised with the edition of the journal Libera; the magazine Protesta! (together with the comrades from the anarchist collective Terra Livre in Sao Paulo); and books like O Anarquismo Social by Frank Mintz, O Anarquismo Hoje da Unio Regional Rhone-Alpes e Ricardo Flores Magn by Diego Abad de Santilln. Finally, there is the internal work of
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For social anarchism! For the recovery of the social vector of anarchism! Social revolution and libertarian socialism!
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E n g l i s h t r a n s l a t i o n o f A n a r q u i s m o S oc i a l e Organizao, by the Anarchist Federation of Rio de Janeiro (Federao Anarquista do Rio de Janeiro FARJ), Brazil, approved at the 1st FARJ Congress, held on 30th and 31st of August 2008.
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